Costa Coffee

Typical Costa experience and of course the very good Wifi is a draw. The Golders Green branch is quite large for the typical Costa Coffee. In a busy location so constant customers. The baristas are friendly but I can’t help but feel the place needs a proper clean. The place looks so worn out and ‘dirty. I watched the staff member clear the tables but he didn’t wipe the table clean after. I would imagine that a lot of people have used the tables before it is ever cleaned.

Too bad there isn’t a 3.5 star rating. Anyhow, after I lost half my coffee to a very, very unstable coffee table (I can’t have been the first one!) I did get offered another flat white, and it was quite a good cup of coffee. I actually think their neighbour, Starbucks, has a better ambience, but this place is perfectly fine. It’s not a bad coffee shop at all. I just wish they didn’t close so early (9 pm).

This was one of the few coffee shops in Golders Green that allowed smoking out front when the smoking ban came into place. I’m not a smoker, but I appreciated the inclusive rendezvous this facilitated, when I was having coffee with a group of people that included some smokers.
This Costa Coffee was also one of the VERY FIRST in the UK when Costa came into being. As such, it is an institution and I struggle to say bad things about it.
The seats are comfy (head to the corners of the dark depths beyond the smokers’ porch) and the service is usually friendly. Come here often enough (as I did, as a bratty and obnoxious teenager) and the staff will remember your order each time. Which is nice. And served to make me more obnoxious (I think — hope? — I’m a nicer person now).
I came here a few days ago out of nostalgia and not much has changed. Some might say that’s a bad thing. I say: if it ain’t broke, don’t bloody fix it.